The art of surfing requires a combination of natural ability, practice and skill. It requires making continual adjustments to the surfer's balance, to keep a large longitudinally oriented surfboard skimming across the surface of the water traveling forward at just the right velocity and angle, such that the wave can propel the board and surfer forward, while at the same time, the surfer is able to lean and make adjustments to carve out a path at just the right moment, and with just the right directional feet pressure and body English. It is essentially a careful balancing act that is required to keep the board and rider in a constantly changing equilibrium state that requires a constant awareness of the body's position relative to the board, and the board's position relative to the water, wherein the board and surfer are synchronized together, in various controlled directions, while at the same time, creating maneuvers of interest by using the forces of gravity and the sloped surface of the moving wave.
Because of the need to synchronize these movements and constantly make adjustments, it is also important that the wave that the board is riding on is of sufficient size, shape and quality to enable the surfer to generate speed, and be provided with ramps, transitions, sections, and hollow tubes which allow the surfer to perform tricks and maneuvers while keeping his or her balance. For one thing, the surface structure that the board travels on, and cuts across, and maneuvers relative to, must be sufficiently smooth and free of turbulence and surface discontinuities to enable the board to successfully skim across and cut through the wave, and allow the surfer to perform the desired maneuvers and tricks. If there are any irregularities in the structure of the wave, such as ridges, angles, ripples, vortices, chops, etc., the wave will be more difficult to maneuver and stay balanced on. For example, based on the size of a standard surf board, including its overall width, length and thickness, it is critical that the smooth portion of the wave be sufficiently large enough, and wide enough, such that the board can be fully supported by the wave structure, wherein, as the board skims and maneuvers across the wave surface, the surfer can make the necessary adjustments and shifts that will enable him or her to maintain balance on the board. If there is too much turbulence on the surface, for example, or if the smooth portion of the wave is not large or wide enough, the board can lose its planing ability or be diverted, which may cause the surfer to either lose the wave completely, or have to make quick compensating adjustments and corrections, which can increase the chances that he or she will wipe-out by making an erroneous change in body position.
Due to the size of a standard surfboard, which is typically about 18 to 21 inches (40 cm to 55 cm) wide, and about 2 to 3 inches (5 cm-7 cm) thick, and about 70 to 120 inches (2 to 3 meters) long, as well as the shape of the board, which can have a taper or curve to facilitate carving, it is desirable for the smooth portion of the wave to be large enough to fully support the board, as well as its varied movements, which enables the surfer to maneuver on the waves properly. For example, if there are large ripples, bumps or chops that are formed on a wave that are spaced apart every 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 cm) or so, then, as the board encounters those bumps, etc., the surfer will have to take a very conservative (minimal maneuver) surfing stance with knees bent, which act as shock absorbers, and use very small quick adjustments to keep the board from being affected, wherein, as the surfer travels forward and skims across the wave surface, staying on path and avoiding a wipeout becomes a matter of survival. Indeed, one of the significant drawbacks to surfing on a low quality wave is that the board itself can be undesirably diverted, such as, for example, when the tip of the board enters into a chop, in which case, the nose of the board can dive down into the water, which in surf speak is known as ‘pearling’, and will most often result in a wipeout.
In the past, because there are only a few places in the world where high quality surfable waves are created in nature on a regular basis, it was necessary for surfers to travel great distances to reach and catch a great wave. But given the lack of available time and resources for many surfers to make this type of trip, greater emphasis has been placed on creating man-made surfable waves such as in a large wave pool that surfers can ride on at virtually any time.
Wave pools are man-made bodies of water in which waves are created to simulate waves in an ocean. A wave pool typically has a wave generating machine located at one end and an artificial sloped “beach” located at the other end, wherein the wave generating machine creates disturbances in the water that produce periodic waves that travel from one end to the other. The floor of the pool near the beach is preferably sloped upward so that as the waves approach the shore, the floor causes the waves to change in shape and “break” onto the beach.
One of the shortcomings of traditional wave pools is that they occupy a significant amount of land and therefore are relatively expensive to build. Also, to produce large surfable waves, not only does the pool itself have to be larger, but the wave generators also have to be larger and more powerful to push more water to create the desired waves. Some wave pools have been built with multiple wave generators positioned side by side along the deep end and a sloped beach at the shallow end. The wave generators are capable of being activated at the same time to produce a single periodic wave that travels from the deep end to the shallow end. Typically, in such case, each wave generator is capable of being activated simultaneously to create a single periodic wave that progresses across the length of the pool and then breaks.
In Cohen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,145, a wave generating facility having an angled reef for allegedly producing plunging type waves is shown, wherein multiple wave generators are provided at an oblique angle along the offshore side of the reef to generate multiple waves in sequence, wherein a single wave is formed that peels laterally along the reef. In Cohen, the wave generators are positioned at an oblique angle relative to the front or crest of the waves, and likewise, the reef is extended along the same oblique angle, such that, as the waves progress they will peel and break laterally across the reef.
In Leigh, U.S. Pat. No. 3,350,724, a method and apparatus for generating artificial waves in a body of water is shown, wherein multiple wave generators for producing individual waves are shown. According to Leigh, each wave generator is provided with a pair of angled walls extending forward, wherein this arrangement enables the wave segments to elongate as they travel forward. By substantially angling the walls in front of each wave generator, the wave segments are allowed to spread out as they travel forward, which, according to Leigh, allows for longer periodic waves to be produced using fewer and shorter wave generators. According to the drawings, this is achieved by the walls being angled to what appears to be about 60 to 70 degrees relative to each other.
One serious disadvantage of Leigh, however, is that the wave segments elongate as they follow the angle of the walls, wherein the segments will arc radially outward and eventually interfere with and collide against each other as they converge, rather than merge smoothly to form a uniform periodic wave. This is because as the segments elongate a lateral down-line velocity vector is created which causes the wave segments to collide against each other with significant force. The elongation of the wave segments will also, by virtue of the principles of energy conservation, cause the height/amplitude of the waves to drop as they travel forward. Also, the extra turbulence and disturbance caused by the wave segments colliding against each other will cause the waves to redirect energy, thereby further contributing to wave size reduction, wherein additional energy will be required to create the same size wave.
For the above reasons, there is a need to design and build a wave pool using a plurality of wave generators positioned side by side along the deep end to produce wave segments that travel forward and merge together to form a single resultant periodic wave, wherein the pool design successfully allows the wave segments to merge together to form a high quality surfable progressive wave, but without forming excess turbulence and disturbance along the convergence zones.